Teaching, Learning process
Education forms a crucial part of the overall performance of an individual in the economy. A learned nation is a wealthy nation. It is through learning that one acquires the basic principles to found life. The learning process incorporates skills, policies, personal attributes, and integrates knowledge, the essential aspects inferred to learners. Learning takes place in various strategies. One such approach is that learning involves change. The changes here mainly impact the behavior of an individual. Additionally, learning takes place over a period. Time resource is employed for learning to take place as forgetting occurs. Learning also takes place through experience. Various theories play a crucial role in explaining how the learning process takes place. This essay distinguishes the cognitive and behavioral views of learning. Other than this, the paper also outlines how to teach students to think.
The behavior view of learning entails how the changes in behavior impact the learning process. According to Santrock (2017), behavior theorist holds that knowledge exists independently and outside of people. Here the learner is perceived as an empty vessel with zero experience. The learner must be provided with the background for the learning process (Santrock, 2017). Interactions of the learner with various stimuli play a major role in creating the learning experience. The learner acquires new behaviors influencing the learner's activities. A repeated influence of the stimuli to the learner causes a lasting response (Santrock, 2017). For instance, a student willing to get a good grade will toil in books. A positive change in behavior by the student signifies that learning has taken place. In this case, the teacher is responsible for making a positive influence through incentives and punishing those low in response. However, this point of view does not equip the learner with problem-solving and creative thinking capabilities. This is because the learner solely relies on what he/she is told.
While the behavior view prepares the learner for recalling basic facts and automatic responses, the cognitive view of learning influences the change in behavior and impacts the learner's knowledge bank. The learning process's cognitive point of view holds that individuals process the information they encounter rather than the stimuli (Santrock, 2017). The learner's mind is intensively used in integrating what is happening in the surroundings, hence influencing the overall behavior. Cognitive processing is evident in the learning process when the learner puts in more effort in trying to understand the activities happening in the circle. This point of view largely focused on the learner's mind than just the observable changes displayed. The change in behavior, in this case, outlines what is happening in the learner's mind.
A teacher plays a crucial role in the learning process and may negatively or positively impact the learner. As a good teacher aiming at positively impacting students, I would gladly incorporate a cognitive view in the learning process. In my lessons, I would involve the cognitive view by; asking my students to reflect on their experience. In so doing, I will have the student share their experiences, creating a pool of experiences from where other students can learn. Secondly, I will help my students find solutions to problems. Through this, the students will learn how to maneuver in case faced with a challenge. Encouraging open discussions in class is another way I will incorporate cognitive view in the learning process. This will impact the learner's learning process as they will be actively involved in the learning process by having peer teaching. Additionally, I will use visualization in the teaching process to enhance the student's ability to recall. Visualization helps the student create mental images, and this can help in improving their memory.
In the learning process, the ability of the learner to think critically offers a better learning experience. To achieve this, the teacher has to establish captivating strategies to develop the ability to think critically. Allowing wait time in the learning process improves the learner's thinking levels (Santrock, 2017). In the scenario, the teacher allows a specific time period after asking a question rather than popping on the first student to respond. The time allowance creates time for the students to think about the teacher's question enhancing their thinking capabilities. Secondly, modeling adds to the student's ability to think. Not all students learn through the verbal style alone; an action in the learning process initiates the whole process (Santrock, 2017). “I do, We do, You do" strategy allows the teacher to introduce models in the learning process. The teacher initiates the learning process, inviting students to take part as the learning carries on. This enables the student to think as the teacher offers assistance in the learning process. Additionally, Universal design for learning strategy also enhances the learner's ability to think (Santrock, 2017). This strategy offers learners an opportunity to interact with the learning materials individually, revealing what they know. This familiarizes them with the learning process hence improving their thinking capacities.
The social constructive learning approach holds that knowledge is created from within the individual and not acquired externally. In this approach, the learner is responsible for building his or her knowledge bank. Learning takes place through integrating gathered experiences and the learner's inborn knowledge (Santrock, 2017). The process involves the teachers, peers, and parents for the learning to take place. The teacher is the sole proprietor in the process and is expected to establish a better learning environment. This is done by involving technological skills in the learning process. The cooperative learning approach is another wing that eases the teaching process. In this, individual accountability is highly exercised. This ensures the learner puts efforts into learning as the group's achievement calls for everyone's effort to reflect. Personal interactions with the teacher is also allowed in this approach. Team working enhances maximum performance in the learning process.
The constructivist learning approach allows integrative learning of concepts in class. In teaching mathematics, applying this learning approach helps make the learning process easy to grasp. The approach offers analysis in stage one; here, the problem is analyzed by all the students before the teacher offers help. Stage two of the process offers a variety of sources of information. Here the student attempts to use various methods to solve the problem. Stage three offers developments of plans to handle the problem. Here the students work as a team basing their outcomes on the sources used. The next stage allows students to share and provide feedback. The interactions here broadens to teachers, learning materials, and the students. All acquired skills are used to solve the problem. Finally, the answers are discussed, and the correct one is selected, published, and stored for future use.
In conclusion, the learning process involves many strategies to make it easy for learners to grasp. An effective learning process guarantees a positive impact on the learner's cognitive abilities and behavior. The teacher, therefore, must be compassionate about the teaching process he/ she adapts. Various students have varying cognitive abilities, and this factor should be given attention in the teaching process. The learning process adapted should be habitable to all the students and equal learning materials supplied.
References
Santrock, J. W. (2017). Educational psychology. McGraw-Hill Education.
